Options for women to go against tradition and not change their surname after marriage

 Traditionally, a woman takes the husband's surname after marriage. But this was in those bygone days when women were prohibited from education or work. Now as more and more women are getting independent, they are questioning this tradition! They would like to topple this old deep-rooted tradition once and for all but their voices are suppressed by the dominating voices of not good people around in the society. The prominent amongst these are hypocritical males, self-proclaimed religious heads and power crazy politicians who come to power by manipulating people's minds around these traditions. They use religion as a tool to garner votes and remain in power. Nonetheless, independent women often find their own ways to go around this rudimentary tradition. 

Options that women can use to not change their surname

Many independent women nowadays prefer to remain single. They are self-partnered. They are busy in their career. They credit their life achievements to their parents who sacrificed a lot for providing them with education. They strongly believe in making their parents proud and famous by retaining their surnames. They are also rightly aware that their spouses if they marry had no role in their education. Hence many opt to stay single and enjoy life rather than compromise and bring in unhappiness. 

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The second way is that an increasing number of women do not change their surname even if they get married. They retain their maiden surname and continue to do so. This is commonly seen in the West. And in Malaysia, the woman never changes her surname after marriage. She continues to have her first name followed by 'binti' which means 'daughter of' and follows this with her father's name. 

The third way out is to retain your maiden surname and after a hyphen add the new surname. 

Nowadays, queer couples take each other's last names. They hyphenate or combine the two surnames. Examples of celebrities doing so are singer Beyonce and Jay-Z who now have the surnames of both namely Knowles-Carter. John and Yoko Ono Lennon have done a similar thing. The former mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa has a combined surname now. His surname was Villar. That of his ex-wife was Raigosa. So it became Villaraigosa. 

Though uncommon, some husbands these days take the surname of their wife. Example is Jack White who took his wife's surname. His wife was Meg White. And this is the fourth option.

So kick the tradition and do what you feel right! Be the first to change the tide in your favor! Let education show people the light! Contribute to save and help women.  This type of little little changes will go a long way is breaking the pro-male and anti-female attitudes of people in repressive countries such as India. This will help save females from the knives of female foeticide and female infanticides, bride deaths, and maternal deaths. This will help equalize male: female ratios that has gone lop-sided in India. Thus slave brides would end and all women would get true respect, happiness and their rights.